Following the Trump administration’s previously announced commitment to “slash unnecessary red tape and regulations,” the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed a new suite of deregulatory actions that, if successful, will significantly scale back the Department’s Appliance and Equipment Standards Program. On May 12, 2025, DOE pre-published dozens of proposed rules in the Federal Register (with official publications scheduled for May 16, 2025) that would withdraw covered products determinations and rescind existing test procedures and energy and water conservation standards. While prior administrations, including the first Trump Administration, have sought to slow or even stop the development of new efficiency standards, until now, none have attempted to so significantly weaken or even undo final standards already in force. DOE’s deregulatory efforts will have far-reaching impacts on the companies that manufacture, import, distribute, and sell covered products, the consumers and businesses that purchase such equipment, and the utilities that rely on efficiency standards to reduce demands on the electric grid. Because Congress included a prohibition on “backsliding” in DOE’s authorizing statute, we expect consumer and environmental NGOs and potentially states to challenge these deregulatory efforts in court.

DOE is proposing to revert to statutory efficiency standards for products where the Department subsequently established its own more stringent standards via rulemaking. For example, Congress first set efficiency standards for a subset of external power supplies as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. In 2014, DOE completed a rulemaking that strengthened those standards and expanded the scope of covered products. Now, DOE proposes to rescind those 2014 standards, reverting to the standard and scope set out by Congress in 2007, even though manufacturers have been complying with the more stringent standards for many years. 

DOE also proposes withdrawing its previously covered product determinations for various products. Congress established certain product categories as “covered products” and empowered DOE to regulate additional product categories if it determined that regulation of those products was warranted. Once the covered products determinations are withdrawn, DOE indicates that standards and test procedures for those products will no longer apply, even where they already exist. For example, DOE is now proposing that portable air conditioners no longer be considered “covered products” under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) and is removing its previously promulgated efficiency standards, which were finalized in 2020 and entered into force in January 2025. In some instances, DOE had previously determined to designate a new covered product category but had not yet finalized a water or energy efficiency standard for that product. DOE is withdrawing a number of those product determinations, meaning that it will not develop standards for those products. For example, in 2021, DOE released a final rule stating that fans and blowers were “covered equipment” and that inclusion was necessary to conserve energy resources. The Biden Administration proposed but eventually declined to finalize efficiency standards for these products. DOE is now proposing to rescind DOE’s determination classifying fans and blowers as covered equipment, which will make it more difficult and time-consuming to regulate these products in the future.

DOE has proposed to rescind efficiency standards or test procedures and/or withdraw applicability determinations for well over a dozen product categories, including

• External power supplies
• Air cleaners
• Fans and blowers
• Dehumidifiers
• Commercial clothes washers
• Compact residential clothes washers
• Battery chargers
• Automatic commercial ice makers
• Commercial prerinse spray valves
• Consumer furnace fans
• Compressors
• Miscellaneous refrigeration products
• Portable air conditioners
• Microwave ovens
• Residential dishwashers
• Faucets
• Conventional ovens
• Conventional cooking tops

Consumer and environmental groups repeatedly sued the first Trump administration over far more modest efforts to slow or stop appliance efficiency rulemakings. The Department’s efforts to roll back or eliminate standards and test procedures in their entirety will no doubt similarly be met with a flurry of legal challenges, primarily concerning whether they run afoul of the anti-backsliding provision of EPCA. The anti-backsliding provision specifies that DOE may not prescribe any amended standard that “increases the maximum allowable energy use . . . of a covered product.” DOE contends that rescinding a rule does not constitute prescribing an amended standard and that the provision “only prevents DOE from setting standards below the statutory maximum or minimum.”

DOE is currently requesting public comments on these proposals, which must be received on or before 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register. DOE will also host a webinar to discuss the proposals on May 29, 2025. Beveridge & Diamond is actively monitoring developments in this area and is ready to assist interested stakeholders prepare comments to the proposed rules.